Hi everyone
I’m looking for some help please. Ian tried the Olympus omd em1 mark i with the Olympus 45-150mm 2.8 to shoot the rugby today with the camera set at low continuous burst with 9 point focus in centre of grid on c-af and Aperture mode. Clear blue skies with some cloud. What he is finding strange ( compared to Canon 7D ) is when he presses shutter and following action on the player, the viewfinder goes black and he cannot see anything to follow the play after taking the initial shot
Have we got the wrong camera settings somewhere? Is there a way that he can half press the button to get focus and continue to follow play through the viewfinder whilst full pressing the shutter button to get a sequence of photos?
He’s realised that maybe he should go spot meter ( centre only) and should he also change c-af to c-af + tracking?
Thanks everyone for any help
Ceri

Not sure, the Em1x [or emix as I like to refer to it as] has an extra stop of stabilization, it's newer tech on top, it maybe possible to add similar to the mkII via FW but your guess is as good as mine whether it's technically possible.

I feel the emix would have been a killer if they'd ditched the mandatory grip and dropped it closer to 2K - I think it really could have spurred em1 mkII owners on to upgrade, but as is it's very niche/ I do hope some of it's enhancements can be implemented into the mkII ... I've fancied that for a while myself. I would probably veer toward the G9 atm, but if there was possible FW improvements like hand-held high res for the II, I could be easily swayed

Hi everyone
I’m looking for some help please. Ian tried the Olympus omd em1 mark i with the Olympus 45-150mm 2.8 to shoot the rugby today with the camera set at low continuous burst with 9 point focus in centre of grid on c-af and Aperture mode. Clear blue skies with some cloud. What he is finding strange ( compared to Canon 7D ) is when he presses shutter and following action on the player, the viewfinder goes black and he cannot see anything to follow the play after taking the initial shot
Have we got the wrong camera settings somewhere? Is there a way that he can half press the button to get focus and continue to follow play through the viewfinder whilst full pressing the shutter button to get a sequence of photos?
He’s realised that maybe he should go spot meter ( centre only) and should he also change c-af to c-af + tracking?
Thanks everyone for any help
Ceri

Unfortunately he is experiencing the viewfinder blackout that you get with mirrorless cameras. I’ll be interested to see if the EM1X improves on this with its extra processing power.

I use the EM1ii for shooting football. I’ve now changed my technique so I hold the shutter down for longer in the hope I don’t miss the best shot, but it is annoying.

I find it useful to set the EVF to always be on rather than just when I bring my eye up to it when shooting action.

I also use back button focusing which separates out the focusing from the shutter. Even when half depressing the shutter on front button focusing, it shouldn’t black out until it’s taking the photos.

I use c-af without tracking. I’ve found tracking works quite well following kite surfers when they jump, but it’s not so good when they’re in the waves. I think I did experiment with using it for football, but I find footballers much easier to follow.

Hi everyone
I’m looking for some help please. Ian tried the Olympus omd em1 mark i with the Olympus 45-150mm 2.8 to shoot the rugby today with the camera set at low continuous burst with 9 point focus in centre of grid on c-af and Aperture mode. Clear blue skies with some cloud. What he is finding strange ( compared to Canon 7D ) is when he presses shutter and following action on the player, the viewfinder goes black and he cannot see anything to follow the play after taking the initial shot
Have we got the wrong camera settings somewhere? Is there a way that he can half press the button to get focus and continue to follow play through the viewfinder whilst full pressing the shutter button to get a sequence of photos?
He’s realised that maybe he should go spot meter ( centre only) and should he also change c-af to c-af + tracking?
Thanks everyone for any help
Ceri

Mirrorless has no more blackout between shots than DSLR TBH, DSLRs also blackout between shots due to the mirror flipping up. Obviously the slower the frame rate the more blackout you will get.

What I've recently discovered with Olympus is that if you have drive mode set to continuous hi then it doesn't show a real time view and actually shows the frame you've just taken which can lead to it being difficult to follow the action. If you set drive to continuous low then you do get a real time view making it much easier to follow the action. Since I've discovered this then there's not a great deal of difference than shooting with my D850, except the tiny fraction of EVF lag if you're panning quickly.

Unfortunately he is experiencing the viewfinder blackout that you get with mirrorless cameras. I’ll be interested to see if the EM1X improves on this with its extra processing power.

I use the EM1ii for shooting football. I’ve now changed my technique so I hold the shutter down for longer in the hope I don’t miss the best shot, but it is annoying.

I find it useful to set the EVF to always be on rather than just when I bring my eye up to it when shooting action.

I also use back button focusing which separates out the focusing from the shutter. Even when half depressing the shutter on front button focusing, it shouldn’t black out until it’s taking the photos.

I use c-af without tracking. I’ve found tracking works quite well following kite surfers when they jump, but it’s not so good when they’re in the waves. I think I did experiment with using it for football, but I find footballers much easier to follow.

Thanks Bebop. It’s Ian replying. Reading your reply made me think about how the 7D operated. I always had the action through the eyepiece and the images taken would flash up on the lcd just out of my eyesight - but the eyepiece would always be free for me to follow the action, so I could keep following the it as it unfolded and hopefully not miss anything.

Translating that to the Olympus - is there a means by which l can just use the evf to just show what’s happening on the pitch in front of me, and not blackout whilst recording images? Is this the operation I might achieve by disabling ‘live view’ as you suggested please?

The detail and sharpness on the images with the Olympus are stunning - but I did miss two tries yesterday because of the blackout issue in recording the lead up play and making some fancy footwork myself to avoid two players sliding in at me on the first one!

Are you saying it goes black and stays black until you release the shutter again? If so this is not right.

Mirrorless has no more blackout between shots than DSLR TBH, DSLRs also blackout between shots due to the mirror flipping up. Obviously the slower the frame rate the more blackout you will get.

What I've recently discovered with Olympus is that if you have drive mode set to continuous hi then it doesn't show a real time view and actually shows the frame you've just taken which can lead to it being difficult to follow the action. If you set drive to continuous low then you do get a real time view making it much easier to follow the action. Since I've discovered this then there's not a great deal of difference than shooting with my D850, except the tiny fraction of EVF lag if you're panning quickly.

Hi Snerkler thanks for your reply. It’s Ian here. Good to hear that there should be no more blackout with mirrorless than with DSLR. Really enjoying the Olympus setup I’m using. Switched to continuous low yesterday, still had a blackout in the evf. In their reply earlier , Bebop suggested disabling the live view function. I’ll try this - hoping to replicate what I’ve experienced with my Canon 7D - live action through the eyepiece, recorded image flashing up on the lcd but not interfering with the view of the action on the field in front of me. Thanks again. Ian

Hi Snerkler thanks for your reply. It’s Ian here. Good to hear that there should be no more blackout with mirrorless than with DSLR. Really enjoying the Olympus setup I’m using. Switched to continuous low yesterday, still had a blackout in the evf. In their reply earlier , Bebop suggested disabling the live view function. I’ll try this - hoping to replicate what I’ve experienced with my Canon 7D - live action through the eyepiece, recorded image flashing up on the lcd but not interfering with the view of the action on the field in front of me. Thanks again. Ian

I'm not sure what you mean by disabling live view, do you mean the rear screen? If so this isn't necessary on the Olympus as it will automatically switch to the EVF as soon as you put your eye up to it (assuming you have this function enabled, which it is by default).

To get the real time view in the viewfinder similar to what you're used to on DSLR, you must have rec view (in the spanner menu) set to off, and shoot in continuous low NOT continuous high. Continuous hi does NOT show you a real time view. The only issue with continuous low on the EM1 mark I is the maximum frame rate is 6.5fps, which is slightly down on your 7D which I believe does 8fps. Technically you will see slightly longer blackout time between frames as you're only getting 6.5 frames as opposed to 8 frames, but how noticeable that will be I'm not sure. Shouldn't be massive.

You can also improve things a bit more by setting the screen refresh rate to High/120hz (it's 60hz by default) but you lose a bit of resolution at 120hz I believe, and battery life. I can't remember which menu that's in off the top of my head.

I'm not sure what you mean by disabling live view, do you mean the rear screen? If so this isn't necessary on the Olympus as it will automatically switch to the EVF as soon as you put your eye up to it (assuming you have this function enabled, which it is by default).

To get the real time view in the viewfinder similar to what you're used to on DSLR, you must have rec view (in the spanner menu) set to off, and shoot in continuous low NOT continuous high. Continuous hi does NOT show you a real time view. The only issue with continuous low on the EM1 mark I is the maximum frame rate is 6.5fps, which is slightly down on your 7D which I believe does 8fps. Technically you will see slightly longer blackout time between frames as you're only getting 6.5 frames as opposed to 8 frames, but how noticeable that will be I'm not sure. Shouldn't be massive.

You can also improve things a bit more by setting the screen refresh rate to High/120hz (it's 60hz by default) but you lose a bit of resolution at 120hz I believe, and battery life. I can't remember which menu that's in off the top of my head.

Cheers Snerkler, appreciate the feedback. Ceri is mentioning this was something she’d seen last night online. I’ll make the changes in the menu and check out with the guys at training on Tuesday evening and let you know how I get on. Not too worried about losing some frames in the low burst mode - less work for me post processing after the match!

Cheers Snerkler, appreciate the feedback. Ceri is mentioning this was something she’d seen last night online. I’ll make the changes in the menu and check out with the guys at training on Tuesday evening and let you know how I get on. Not too worried about losing some frames in the low burst mode - less work for me post processing after the match!

Hiya. Couldn’t wait until Tuesday’s training session so just fired off a burst of shots in the house with rec view turned off. I think I’m a happy boy with the resulting view through the eyepiece. A flicker on capturing images but not enough to prevent continual viewing of the target subject! I think we’re on a winner here Snerkler I’ll still go over on Tuesday but with a lot more confidence about the expected outcome. Thanks again Snerkler. Ian

@fido18@snerkler I only adjust the evf so that it is always on, so that if I take the camera from my eye, there is not a delay when I put it back, nothing to do with blackout. The evf is just too slow to appear otherwise when you’re shooting action.

Thanks for asking the question anyway @fido18 as @snerkler has educated me ( thanks @snerkler) I will try adjusting my refresh rate and rec view. 6.5 secs would be enough for me. Currently the evf definitely goes black and I miss some action.

Are you shooting continuous hi? TBH I've still not used the EM1 in a real world scenario so to speak since discovering that you need to be in continuous low to see a real time view, but panning across my garden whilst firing off in continuous low at 6.5fps didn't show any obvious extra blackout compared to my D850. I'll do a proper side by side test this week. Obviously frame rate will make a difference, for example if you shoot at 10fps you will get less blackout than at 6.5fps (discounting the real time view vs previous frame issue for a minute). I'd therefore hope that shooting on the EM1-II in continuous low (so you see real time view) at 10fps will show very little blackout, in fact it might actually be less than my D850 which 'only' shoots at 7fps (without grip).

@fido18@snerkler I only adjust the evf so that it is always on, so that if I take the camera from my eye, there is not a delay when I put it back, nothing to do with blackout. The evf is just too slow to appear otherwise when you’re shooting action.

Ahh I see what you mean, yes this would be useful if you need that quick reaction as soon as you put your eye to the viewfinder

Thanks for asking the question anyway @fido18 as @snerkler has educated me ( thanks @snerkler) I will try adjusting my refresh rate and rec view. 6.5 secs would be enough for me. Currently the evf definitely goes black and I miss some action.

Please see my reply to Damian, I haven't tested it in a real world scenario yet so don't take this as absolute gospel but initial tests showed no more blackout than I'd expect at 6.5fps. It certainly behaved way better than in continuous hi.

Edit: This is bizarre. I've found two videos on youtube, the first shows little to no blackout, the second shows complete blackout for the entire shoot. I've never experienced what you see in the second video, I wonder if he's just massively underexposing (shown by the flashing -3ev before he starts shooting) and so just getting black frames, or is something else set?

Yep true, I could still lose track of F1 cars using the D750 especially when shooting close, and/or with a telephoto so the relative panning speed is higher. At then end of the day, like everything else technique is key (probably why I fail so much )

@snerkler you probably realise, but the first video is the Em1 and the second is the Em1ii Interestingly both shooting jpeg and also the second at least is S-af whereas normally I am shooting raw c-af.

I will hopefully get chance to try it out on Saturday and let you know. From trying in my lounge it looks like it is improved by turning preview off (can't believe i left it on, but thereagain my finger is usually on the shutter to dismiss it straight away.) Is the evf refresh speed called the frame rate in the menu? Mine is set to normal.

@snerkler you probably realise, but the first video is the Em1 and the second is the Em1ii Interestingly both shooting jpeg and also the second at least is S-af whereas normally I am shooting raw c-af.

I will hopefully get chance to try it out on Saturday and let you know. From trying in my lounge it looks like it is improved by turning preview off (can't believe i left it on, but thereagain my finger is usually on the shutter to dismiss it straight away.) Is the evf refresh speed called the frame rate in the menu? Mine is set to normal.

Preview (Or as Olympus calls it rec view) definitely adds more blackout and makes tracking very difficult. Yeah I realised that about the videos, was just trying to demonstrate the blackout, or lack of. In theory I wouldn't have thought it would make any difference in terms of blackout between S-AF and C-AF, unless it was really struggling to find focus in C-AF and so slowed the frame rate down. Even so, the actual period of each blackout shouldn't change,.... in theory

Preview (Or as Olympus calls it rec view) definitely adds more blackout and makes tracking very difficult. Yeah I realised that about the videos, was just trying to demonstrate the blackout, or lack of. In theory I wouldn't have thought it would make any difference in terms of blackout between S-AF and C-AF, unless it was really struggling to find focus in C-AF and so slowed the frame rate down. Even so, the actual period of each blackout shouldn't change,.... in theory

Same pretty much, you just get used to seeing the same ones reappear. I just remember him putting out yet another one of those "I'm switching systems" videos - why pros feel the need to explain their reasons for this I don't get - I am subbed to very very few, and they would be mostly old school at this stage

Same pretty much, you just get used to seeing the same ones reappear. I just remember him putting out yet another one of those "I'm switching systems" videos - why pros feel the need to explain their reasons for this I don't get - I am subbed to very very few, and they would be mostly old school at this stage

Ive learnt something new tonight, according to DP review IBIS doesn’t work when using continuous shooting (burst mode) on the EM1 except when using the electronic shutter. Was anyone else aware of this? Is this true of other OMD’s too except the EM1 Mark II and EM1X?

Ive learnt something new tonight, according to DP review IBIS doesn’t work when using continuous shooting (burst mode) on the EM1 except when using the electronic shutter. Was anyone else aware of this? Is this true of other OMD’s too except the EM1 Mark II and EM1X?

I'm not sure what you mean by disabling live view, do you mean the rear screen? If so this isn't necessary on the Olympus as it will automatically switch to the EVF as soon as you put your eye up to it (assuming you have this function enabled, which it is by default).

To get the real time view in the viewfinder similar to what you're used to on DSLR, you must have rec view (in the spanner menu) set to off, and shoot in continuous low NOT continuous high. Continuous hi does NOT show you a real time view. The only issue with continuous low on the EM1 mark I is the maximum frame rate is 6.5fps, which is slightly down on your 7D which I believe does 8fps. Technically you will see slightly longer blackout time between frames as you're only getting 6.5 frames as opposed to 8 frames, but how noticeable that will be I'm not sure. Shouldn't be massive.

You can also improve things a bit more by setting the screen refresh rate to High/120hz (it's 60hz by default) but you lose a bit of resolution at 120hz I believe, and battery life. I can't remember which menu that's in off the top of my head.

i need to try a few of these little tips as i was struggling at the track last time i went, first time out with new gear so i was expecting it to be different than my old Nikon and didnt moan to much. I also found the autofcus to be quite slow in comparison with my old nikon too.... not good for fast cars and slow shutter for panning. i learnt to get by with manual focussing eventually

I picked one up last year as I was interested in a FishEye but didn't want to spend near £200 for the SamYang without being sure I'd use it.
As it turns out I don't use it much so I was wise to go cheap.
I have taken some shots I'm pleased with. If you keep in mind the F8 limitation then you can get some fun results.
Certainly worth the £55 I paid MBP for a perfect used one.

I already have the 7.5mm fisheye but dont use it a lot i have to admit, but then i dont seem to use the 7-14, 12-40 or 40-150s either at the moment hence all but the fisheye for sale in the classifieds :-/

It's so tiny and light that it's no hassle to carry it all the time. I'd been pawing over SamYang but on balance it wouldn't have seen enough use to justify it's cost or perhaps more importantly the space in the bag.
The 9mm BCL is more of a lens than I expected but it's still a novelty item for ocassional use for me.

i need to try a few of these little tips as i was struggling at the track last time i went, first time out with new gear so i was expecting it to be different than my old Nikon and didnt moan to much. I also found the autofcus to be quite slow in comparison with my old nikon too.... not good for fast cars and slow shutter for panning. i learnt to get by with manual focussing eventually

To be fair if I could do photography to your standard I'd be I wouldn't be worried about anything, you clearly have a gift . But whilst we're taking about it I often revert to manual focus when using Nikon too. With slow panning you're often up at f16 and narrower so DOF isn't an issue (assuming the subject isn't moving towards/away from you too much) and it just saves any risk of the AF getting confused by the fencing or whatever, or slowing down frame rate it it's trying to acquire focus.

I picked one up last year as I was interested in a FishEye but didn't want to spend near £200 for the SamYang without being sure I'd use it.
As it turns out I don't use it much so I was wise to go cheap.
I have taken some shots I'm pleased with. If you keep in mind the F8 limitation then you can get some fun results.
Certainly worth the £55 I paid MBP for a perfect used one.